Drab to Fab: Jewelry Roll Tutorial

I have a few different trips planned this year and-I'll just get this out there- I am a habitual over-packer who always travels with waaay more than I actually need. (A girl's gotta have options, right??)  Not to mention my lack of, er, organization.  In an effort to turn over a new leaf, I've been looking for products to make packing more efficient. My favorite find so far is this portable little make-up kit from Smashbox, available at Sephora. It's got eye shadows, blush, bronzer and lip gloss all in one little package. How perfect is that?? I've also been looking for an easy-to-pack jewelry organizer. I could see in my mind's eye exactly what I wanted: a cloth roll with lots of different sized clear compartments to keep everything tangle-free. Unfortunately, although I checked a bunch of different websites, I couldn't find quite what I had pictured. So...I figured why not make it myself?

*Jewelry Roll Tutorial*

What you'll need: fabric (I used 2 coordinating pieces from the remnant bin), thread, clear vinyl, 1" ribbon ( 3 yds give or take), velco, fabric glue

What you'll end up with: One totally personalized 10" x 18" jewelry roll with ribbon tie closures and lots of pockets!

You may want to start like I did, by cutting your 2 fabric pieces a little bit bigger than 10" x 18" to account for any, ahem, mistakes that might occur. Make sure to iron out the creases!

I <3 polka-dots! Almost as much as I <3 stripes...

For my jewelry compartments I decided to use four 4" x 10" strips of the clear vinyl, and sew them into different sized pockets: one long (for necklaces), one split in half (for bracelets), and two rows of four small pockets (for earrings.) You can customize the pockets to whatever works for you. Lay out the strips of vinyl on the outside of the inside piece of fabric to decide where you want your velcro, then use fabric glue to attatch different size pieces of the velcro to both the fabric and the vinyl.

Pin the vinyl pieces into place and you're ready to begin sewing! You may have better luck with your machine, but mine absolutely hated the vinyl so I had to flip my fabric over and sew on the back, using light pencil markings as a guide since I couldn't visualize the edges of the vinyl.

Once all the pockets are completed to your satisfaction (whew, that was more work than I anticipated!) You may realize like I did that you're left with a lot of rough, unattractive edges. No problem! You can pin some of your ribbon across the width of the roll to cover the vinyl edges and stitch it into place.

Now you're ready to add the coordinating fabric for the outside of the roll. Make sure you include a length of ribbon between the pieces at one end to use as a tie closure (I used about 14") and sew everything into place. The other half of the ribbon tie closure can be attached to the outside middle of the jewelry roll with more of the fabric glue.

Almost done! The last step is to cut ribbon strips in lengths to match the edges of the roll, and iron a crease down the center of each. That makes it super easy to sew into place around the edges for a nicely finished look.

And voila!

If you decide to make your own jewely roll, please let me know! I'd love to see what you come up with!

Join this week's Drab to Fab link-up at Sugar and Spice so we can see your awesome outfit or fun DIY!